Adventures in Ancestry

Main menu

Tag Archives: Urban decay

Teaching is hard. Like….really hard. You may have noticed that I haven’t posted anything in two months! Two whole months! Sometimes I’ll sit down to the computer to write something out cause I have a great thought…and maybe…just maybe…a three sentence post is better than no post at all. But I am honestly too tired to even begin to think about what to write.

I started teaching this year, full-time, US History and US Government. I have had not a moment’s rest since the first day of school. But today…I took a little diversion from grading bell-ringer worksheets and started planning my fall break. I work at Indianapolis Public Schools and we are now on what is called a “balanced schedule”. This means we go to school earlier in the fall, get out later in the spring, but have these amazing breaks in between. So I have a lovely 2 week fall break coming up, and I can’t wait!

I am heading out east to visit some friends in NYC and do some family history research in Scranton, PA, FINALLY! I am absolute delighted to be going to Scranton, where generations of Kinsleys, Laceys, and Smiths resided. This is the town where my mom spent her young childhood. This is also the town of the fictional Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company. If there was a museum devoted to The Office we would be going.

While I got distracted, planning my vaca, I also took a little diversion onto ancestry.com (so naughty! I know!) and just did a general search for Charles W. Kinsley (my grandfather and also his father). I ended up finding a new little tidbit of information about what C.W. Kinsley Sr. did as an occupation. The 1936 City Directory had him working as a purchase agent at the Scranton Lace Company. So I decided to Google the Scranton Lace Company to see if it was still in operation. Sadly it seems that it closed in 2002 – but I was utterly delighted to come upon someone’s photo-blog of their urban exploration photos of this shuttered factory. The photos are amazing, and have me dying to go visit. If you’re into abandoned/urban decay pictures, you’ll love this:

As I was reading more about this company I came to find out that Hillary Rodham Clinton’s father and grandfather worked in this factory as well! So I perused the R’s in the 1937 Directory and the one page that the Rodhams were on was missing! Shenanigans! So I looked to see if they had any other years posted and they did! One year earlier, 1936. So I looked up the Kinsleys first to make sure they were working at the factory then as well. They were. Then I found Mr. Hugh Rodham! And yes, he worked at the lace factory with my great-grandfather.

1905 Scranton Lace Company Gold Bond Note

In addition to their place of employment, the directory also lists their residences. It turns out these two fellows lived less than a mile from each other, both pretty close to the factory.

Whether you appreciate the Clinton’s politics or not, it’s pretty cool to have a link to a “first family”.